VERDANT HIVE MOON: ONDERON

Features

Retrograde Moon. Dxun is the largest and closest moon of Onderon, and orbits the planet in a retrograde—reverse—fashion to most moons. It also does so with an unusual elliptical orbit, suggesting it is in fact a dwarf or proto-planet captured by Onderon’s orbit rather than forming in place. This strange orbit makes aspects of Onderon and Dxun inseparable and the two astral bodies have interacted significantly in their past.

Hive World. The moon of Dxun is largely unexplored and covered with dense jungle. While it clearly harbours a civilisation of its own, efforts to survey the planet from a distance have resulted in very inconclusive results. Most data reveal a staggering array of flora and fauna, some which are surmised as being not originally native to the moon. Efforts to locate specific cities or urban centres have largely failed.

Unstable Tectonics. Because Dxun shifts very close to its parent planet every two years, the planet is regularly exposed to crushing gravitational pressure, which has cracked and scarred its surface in a number of regions. On a long enough timeline, many interstellar geologists have surmised that the moon will likely be forced into a more rhythmic and orderly orbit, or simply be torn apart by the mass of Onderon.

The Dxun Storm. Every two years, Dxun moves particualrly close to Onderon, thanks to its unusual elliptical orbit. On Onderon, this event is known as the Dxun Storm, and for a period of several weeks the atmosphere of both bodies begin to merge, and an enormous intraplanetary storm brews; this storm is severe, and the intermingling of the atmospheres allows travel between Dxun and Onderon with vehicles and large animals in a fashion usually impossible on other planets and moons.

Unaligned. The surface of Dxun is notoriously wild, and though this draws the attention of hunters and warriors of a number of different cultural stripes, it means the planet has almost no indigenous government whatsoever. Several efforts at subjugating the moon have failed miserably, as most serious forays find themselves under assault not just from native warriors but also by the vast array of especially dangerous native fauna.

Locations

The Dxun Rift. Perhaps the largest ring of volcanic matter in several sectors, the Dxun Rift is a large string of scarred and blackened territory along the equator of the moon, caused by the massive tectonic forces applied as it is drawn close to Onderon every two years.

Temple of the Mandarlorians. The only known civil centre on the moon, the temple is among the very few artificial structures capable of being surveyed from orbit. The traditions of the Mandalorians on Dxun require them to ride immense insectoid creatures known as drexl through the Dxun Storm to ritually pillage and gather technology from the Onderonians, who have rightly come to protect their settlements with a high degree of paranoia.

While the seemingly primitive sect of Mandalorians on Dxun seem brutish and simple compared to many of the talented warriors now dispersed among the galaxy, the traditions of survival and warfare developed on Dxun have in fact been replicated to a lesser degree on the planet Mandalore. While even seasoned warriors from across the galaxy would find Mandalore’s environment daunting, even the beskar-armoured adherents of this creed consider the true test of their mettle to be a pilgrimage to their ancestral “homeworld”. By which they mean Dxun. It is not known how (or if at all) the more commonly recognised “Mandalorians” are received by their more primitive counterparts on the dreaded moon.

The “original” Mandalorians are in fact reportedly composed of a relatively primitive group of humanoids of a distinctly reptilian physiology whose cultural savagery has few equals in the galaxy. A tribal people, these hardy warriors survive by their wits and strength, raiding Onderon in the regular two-year cycles that the moon comes close enough for them to ride their drexl mounts through the storm; all of these rituals are in aid of determining who among them can claim the title of becoming the Mandalorian. A singular title, it is assumed to be the equivalent of a king or warlord. The Mandalorians of Dxun apparently consider themselves to be the only Mandalorians, and to what degree they are even aware of their namesakes in the galaxy at large is unknown.

At what point these beings settled on the moon remains a mystery, and why they would do so is beyond the understanding of any galactic anthropologist, but they did so—and have become warriors of almost unparalleled effectiveness. It is said that only Kashyyyk truly rivals Dxun for the lethality of its native fauna, and even Mandalore and its introduced predators do not fully replicate the dangers of the ravaged moon of Dxun.